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"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

Jazz win the Finals. Jordan publicly blames Scottie Pippen. Pippen retires immediately and takes a job as an assistant at Cleveland State, then moves on to be an assistant at USC. While at USC, Pippen becomes involved in a minor scandal, which ends up affecting the entire athletic department. Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart decide to instead attend Purdue, leading them to consecutive Rose Bowl losses. Joe Tiller retires when both players declare for the draft in 2006. Rich Rodriguez, not Danny Hope, is hired to replace Tiller. Lloyd Carr is then in turn replaced by Jim Grobe upon retirement in 2007. Grobe lasts three seasons with records of 4-8, 5-7, and 7-6 before being fired and replaced by Brady Hoke. Roy Roundtree has a moderately successful college career at Purdue, becoming an undrafted free agent who appears in 9 games over two seasons with the Titans and Panthers.

Research is pointless beyond looking at which top seeds are dealing with significant injuries and eliminating those teams from consideration, and MAYBE also eliminating the handful of teams that you can seemingly count on pooping out early in the tournament annually. The tournament as a whole is a crapshoot, the round of 64 games always include several unpredictable results, and no amount of research would ever give you UConn over UK last year, or Wichita State, Michigan, and Syracuse in the FF the year before, etc.

Edit: Upon further consideration, it's probably also worthwhile to look at which teams are drastically underseeded or overseeded based on metrics.

Because his body is breaking down and thus he's constantly injured? Because he's rusty after yet another long layoff due to injury? Because he won't stop screwing with his swing, he can't hit driver anymore, and for whatever reason his putting has also fallen off?

I recall there being talk of Michigan and Minnesota doing something similar when Michigan was trying to find a "special" opponent for the home opener to celebrate the completed stadium renovations in 2010. I don't know if those rumors came from the AD or from the fans, though.

Oregon's defensive yardage stats are always screwed up because (1) the ridiculous pace the offense plays at causes the defense to face more possessions and (2) the big leads they hold from about the second quarter on pretty much every game leads to opponents flinging the ball around in comeback mode.

If you use advanced stats, FEI has Oregon's defense at #18 and S&P has them #12.

The problem was that Texas Tech was also a one loss team. TT beat Texas who beat Oklahoma who beat TT. I think Oklahoma was the right choice since their win over TT was the most impressive of the three.

I'd argue that OSU played one non-conference game against a team with a pulse and, in that game, lost at home to .500 ACC team. Their best wins are Michigan State and... Minnesota? Who TCU also beat, and by a considerably larger margin. If you look at the other top teams in the Big Ten, they all have non-conference schedules littered with losses to literally every other power 5 team any of them faced. The Big Ten, based on non-conference results, is effectively a mid-major this year.

I guess my point is that there is a large gulf between the top three conferences and the Big Ten/ACC. I feel the playoff needs to have two representatives from the SEC, but I'd also accept two from the Big 12. I'd leave Jimbo Fisher and his band of enabled criminals home just out of my own distaste for them.

Those SEC West teams you listed have 3 and 4 losses because they have to play a full slate of SEC West games. They'd all be 0- or 1-loss teams in the sad sack Big Ten.

Here is a complete list of losses by SEC West teams to other teams outside that division: Georgia over Arkansas, Georgia over Auburn, Missouri over Texas A&M. Yes- the seven teams collectively have three losses to teams outside their division.

A prerequisite for the Big Ten getting a playoff spot needs to be the entire conference not getting embarrassed in non-conference play. What is the best non-conference win by the Big Ten? Indiana over Missouri? Northwestern over a reeling Notre Dame? Any other wins over teams that are anywhere near the top 25? By my estimation, the third best non-con win is MSU's moral victory in a 20-point loss to Oregon.

Also, a win over LSU is still more impressive than a win over Wisconsin when you consider the fact that LSU beat Wisconsin earlier this season.

As someone born and raised in Metro Detroit but who has also lived in other cities, I've never seen anything quite like the thin skin Metro Detroiters have when any outsider dares insult what is, realistically, a pretty crappy city.